Tag Archives: Ukraine

Putin Rejected Early Peace Deal Brokered By Aide

Reuters reports: Vladimir Putin’s chief envoy on Ukraine told the Russian leader as the war began that he had struck a provisional deal with Kyiv that would satisfy Russia’s demand that Ukraine stay out of NATO, but Putin rejected it and pressed ahead with his military campaign, according to three people close to the Russian leadership. The Ukrainian-born envoy, Dmitry …

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Ukraine Prods West For Weapons After New Advances

Reuters reports: Ukraine said on Tuesday it aimed to liberate all of its territory after driving back Russian forces in the northeast of country in a rapid offensive, but called on the West to speed up deliveries of weapons systems to back the advance. Since Moscow abandoned its main bastion in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday, marking its worst defeat since …

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Ukraine Says It’s Running Out Of Space For POWs As Russian Soldiers Surrender During Ukraine Advances

The Associated Press reports: Ukrainian troops expanded their territorial gains Monday by pushing all the way to the country’s northeastern border in places and claimed to have captured many Russian soldiers as part of the lightning advance that forced Moscow to make a hasty retreat. A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as “they …

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Russian Military Retreats From Ukraine’s Kharkiv Region

The Associated Press reports: Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Saturday that it’s pulling back troops from two areas in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region where a Ukrainian counteroffensive has made significant advances in the past week. The news came after days of apparent advances by Ukraine south of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, in what could become the biggest battlefield success for …

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Russia Buys Millions In Weapons From North Korea

Politico reports: Russia is purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea for use in the Ukraine conflict, according to a U.S. official, citing newly downgraded intelligence. The news comes a week after Kyiv began a major counteroffensive in the south of the country to take back territory Moscow captured in its initial invasion. Since the operation began, …

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Russian Oil Mogul Dies In “Fall From Hospital Window”

Reuters reports: Ravil Maganov, the chairman of Russia’s second-largest oil producer Lukoil died on Thursday after falling from a hospital window in Moscow, two sources familiar with the situation said, becoming the latest in a series of businessmen to meet with sudden unexplained deaths. The sources confirmed reports by several Russian media that the 67-year-old had plunged to his death, …

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Vatican Finally Condemns Russia For War On Ukraine

The New York Times reports: The Vatican on Tuesday for the first time said that Russia was the aggressor in the Ukraine war, condemning Moscow’s invasion in strong terms after earlier comments by Pope Francis prompted criticism from Kyiv. “As for the large-scale war in Ukraine, initiated by the Russian Federation, the interventions of the Holy Father Pope Francis are …

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Scholz Pushes To Add Up To Nine New EU Members

Politico Europe reports: The EU should significantly expand but must first undergo fundamental reforms to ensure an enlarged bloc can still function, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Monday. During an hour-long speech at Charles University in Prague, Scholz outlined his vision for an EU of the future — one that has absorbed up to nine new members on its eastern …

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UN Inspectors To Visit Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant

NBC News reports: International inspectors were heading Monday to the Ukrainian nuclear plant at the center of growing alarm about a potential radiation disaster. The United Nations nuclear watchdog mission is set to arrive at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia power plant later this week, offering hope for progress even as the two warring sides exchanged new accusations of shelling around the …

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Russian Defense Minister Sidelined Over War Failures

The Guardian reports: Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu is being “sidelined” due to problems in the war against Ukraine and is likely being ridiculed by soldiers for his “ineffectual” leadership, said British intelligence. The latest update from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: “Recent independent Russian media reports have claimed that due to the problems Russia is facing in its …

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EU Poised To Suspend Visa Agreement With Russia

Politico Europe reports: EU foreign ministers are set to back a suspension of the bloc’s visa facilitation agreement with Moscow, the Financial Times reported, citing three officials involved in talks. Authorities have discussed limiting travel permits for Russian citizens, with some member states calling for an outright ban on Russian tourist visas, but there is no majority in favor of …

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Fears Mount Of Radiation Leak At Ukraine Nuclear Plant

The Associated Press reports: Authorities began distributing iodine tablets to residents near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant Friday in case of a radiation leak, amid mounting fears that the fighting around the complex could trigger a catastrophe. The move came a day after the plant was temporarily knocked offline because of what officials said was fire damage to a transmission …

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Putin Issues Decree To Recruit 137,000 More Troops

Bloomberg News reports: President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to boost its troop total by 137,000 to 1.15 million, the highest level in more than a decade, as Russia digs in for its war against Ukrainian forces backed by the US and its allies. Putin’s brief decree, published on the Kremlin’s website, didn’t explain the motivation for the increase or …

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State Department Urges Americans To Leave Ukraine

Reuters reports: The United States on Tuesday urged its citizens to leave Ukraine, saying it believed Russia was preparing to target civilian and government infrastructure in the next few days as the war reaches the six-month mark. The warning followed a ban by the Ukrainian government on celebrations in the capital Kyiv on Wednesday’s anniversary of independence from Soviet rule …

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Russia Accuses Ukrainian Spy Of Fatal Car Bombing

The Associated Press reports: Russia’s top counterintelligence agency on Monday blamed Ukrainian spy agencies have organized the killing of the daughter of a Russian nationalist ideologue. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the main KGB successor agency, said that the killing of Darya Dugina has been “prepared and perpetrated by the Ukrainian special services.” Dugina was the daughter of Alexander Dugin …

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Ukraine Trolls Russian Tourists With Bananarama Song

The Daily Beast reports: Ukraine’s defense ministry published a video Thursday mocking Russian tourists who fled Crimea after huge explosions ripped through an airbase on the occupied peninsula this week. Footage shared on social media earlier this week showed beachgoers running for cover after the blasts at the Saki base, an attack that has been credited to Ukrainian special forces. …

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China Calls US “Main Instigator” Of Russia-Ukraine War

Reuters reports: China, which Russia has sought as an ally since being cold-shouldered by the West over its invasion of Ukraine, has called the United States the “main instigator” of the crisis. In an interview with the Russian state news agency TASS published on Wednesday, China’s ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui, accused Washington of backing Russia into a corner with …

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Pentagon: 80,000 Russian Troops Killed Or Wounded

The Wall Street Journal reports: As many as 80,000 Russian troops have been wounded or killed in less than six months of fighting in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Monday, the first time the U.S. military announced its estimates of the toll of the invasion on Russia. According to U.S. estimates, Russia has suffered 70,000 to 80,000 casualties, Colin Kahl, the …

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Sanctions Force Russia To Strip Airliners For Spare Parts

Reuters reports: Russian airlines, including state-controlled Aeroflot, are stripping jetliners to secure spare parts they can no longer buy abroad because of Western sanctions, four industry sources told Reuters. Sanctions imposed on Russia after it sent its troops into Ukraine in late February have prevented its airlines from obtaining spare parts or undergoing maintenance in the West. Equipment was being …

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Zelensky Calls On West To Ban All Russian Travelers

The Washington Post reports: The way to stop Russia from annexing any more of Ukraine’s territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday, is for Western countries to announce that they would ban all Russian citizens in response. In a wide-ranging interview with The Washington Post, Zelensky said that “the most important sanctions are to close the borders — because the Russians …

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